I know I am late to the party but when you finish reading this you may end not rejoicing you have been sold lied into thinking Independence Day is this big national day of which you should be proud.

This should not be read as a ‘controversial’ article, whatever that means. Nor should it be read as an exercise to downplay the achievements of our local near-biblical leaders .

Mauritius needs to become this dignified country where people can transcend the barriers and prejudices that have become part and parcel of our lives. Only then should it sing about peace, justice and liberty as one people and as one nation.

It is practically impossible to chronicle the history of Mauritius in a few words. What is possible is being provided with the right information to understand why the 12^th of March is of any significance to us. I cannot sincerely say I have done so but I have tried to stay true to what I have uncovered while trying to find out what happened 46 years ago.

We should not be content watching fireworks and waving the quadricolour when we do not even know about events which led to the Independence. Anyway, that’s what I believe.

In four years’ time the country will reach a milestone and we will be asked to foot the bill for some big ‘public’ event where tributes will be paid to the so-called founding fathers of our country. Some may take to Facebook to whinge about the cost but the rest will stay true to their peuple admirable nature.

The occasion will no doubt demand the renaming of some historical landmarks to honour those great men who fought for Independence. The bread and circus will be carried on even bigger scale to mark the occasion. This is just wishful thinking but I wish that politicians could learn some lessons of history about how the Roman Empire fell apart because of the bread and circus policies.

Hopefully, those who are not on Facebook and who do not belong to the exclusive club who get invited to such event may still be able to enjoy a family picnic on some sunny beaches where they will not be treated as trespassers. The number of beaches accessible to public seems to be on the decline since we got our Independence and this is an ongoing trend.

Somehow , Andre Legallant’s poem is in danger of being an anachronism in 2018.

You may ask yourself if I am not being over-dramatic here. Unfortunately, everything I have said can actually happen. Unless we decide to do understand that our own existence is very much at stake. And that is we know very little about the country we lovingly call ‘Star of the Indian Ocean’.

For centuries, Mauritius has been of great strategic importance to Europe. Somehow, they just left us in March 1968 without any bloodshed or any tales of freedom fighters standing up like David against Goliath. And somehow, this bothers me. Why would they leave this little piece of paradise in the Indian Ocean?

All I know is that on 23^rd September 1965 Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam was convened at 10 Downing Street. Subsequently, the British Indian Ocean Territory was created in Novermber 1965.The rest is as hazy as my own memoires of the day.

I am not very proud that I have only 2 vivid memories of ever celebrating the day. Both are linked to my teenage years when I was still a schoolgirl. Which means that as an adult, It is not out of disrespect that I do not celebrate the day, I just don’t go around waving flags and cheering people who are full of themselves.

I was 14 when I took part in the national parade at the Champ de Mars. I guess it has more to do with freebies and not having to attend boring lessons Not to mention the excitement of seeing all the rehearsals and viewing the day with childlike awe: it was a live tv moment and I did feel I was part of this big logistical operation..

My second memory has a lot to do with the first Carnaval des Etudiants ever organised in Mauritius. Which was on an even bigger logistical scale where I felt, and we all felt, we had some tryst with destiny. Plus, there was lots of music and dancing and cheering and boys…It was in March 1983 and the organisers did a great job galvanising young people from around the country to come to the Champ de Mars. Such an event has never been replicated and cannot be if we persist in our insular way of life.

Which brings me to wonder why the event is no longer celebrated in the Champ de Mars? Why does it have to be in a place where it has lost a bit of its pomp?

Mauritius has this reputation of being a big melting pot where we all live happily together but each 12^th of March we see a deeply fragmented and not very equal society. Where is the peace, justice and liberty we sing about? The ruling class does not seem to bother itself with such ideals. They are simply happy to rule over us for as long as they can.

From a very young age, we are taught how to succeed in the rat race. We are told that without four straight As we can’t go anywhere. Even with good grades, we sometimes need to know the right people to get a good job. The alternative is to search for greener pastures elsewhere. No wonder our elites no longer live in the country and this has led to a very serious brain drain which can only bring ‘lepep admirable’ backward.

The so-called road to Independence is mostly shrouded in mystery and we have been relying on fabricated myths for as long as I can remember.

However, we live in an age when people appear to be waking up from their apathy and willing to stand up for their beliefs.

Surely, it is not enough to be told that Mauritius is the ‘Star of the Indian Ocean”. Not when the Indian Ocean housed one of the largest military base on our ‘territory’. Not when 2000 descendants of slaves were asked to sacrifice everything they had, like literally everything, to give us the illusion that we are a free nation.

According to the Journal of the Indian Ocean Region, the sea lanes in the Indian Ocean are the most strategically important lane in the world. The journal estimates that 80 percent of the world’s seaborne trade in oil transits through Indian Ocean choke points, with 40 percent passing through the Strait of Hormuz, 35 percent through the Strait of Malacca and 8 percent through the Bab el-Mandab Strait.

Local politicians are more preoccupied with tracing their family roots in some unknown corners of their ancestors’ land, than they are with the tiny island 1334 miles away from us. An island which was part of the Chagos Archipelago which is made up of 64 unique coral islands. Between 1814 and 1965 Diego Garcia belonged to Mauritius. Olivier Bancoult always wondered why were the people of Diego Garcia pawned to buy us independence from the British? Who decided they could be traded in this debasing way and why was everything conducted in secret?.

The ‘’Moses’’ of the chagossians once aired why do we even call SSR ‘father of the nations’ when he failed to treat Chagossians on the same level playing field at the table of negotiation for Independence. Did the British hold a gun to his head at Downing Street?

Known as Ilois, or Chagossiens, the native inhabitants were forced to relocate so that we could sing “Motherland, oh motherland of mine”. They were not asked to leave their ‘motherland’’, they were forcefully uprooted so that The US military personal could move in.

There is some cruel irony about our indifference to the uprooting of 2000 people while many of our leaders use taxpayer’s money to look precisely for their roots in some remote corners of India.

Today, the main island of Diego Garcia is America's largest military base in the world, outside the US. There are more than 4,000 troops, two bomber runways, thirty warships and a satellite spy station. The Pentagon calls it an "indispensable platform" for policing the world. It was used as a launch pad for the invasions of many sovereign nations. It has alleged that it had also been used as a CIA secret prison.

Who celebrates the anniversary of the deportation of the Chagossien? Why on earth do we even have national holidays to celebrate the arrival of coolies and the abolition of slavery when we are still vassals of the British Empire?

Imagine being told you cannot go back to your home because UK and US have signed a treaty?

Remember that those who planned post-Independence Mauritius wanted to divide us into montagne while pretending to stand for in peace, justice and liberty.

Are you going to continue singing in that off-key note?